


Guardian Angel

by JeckParadox



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alien Culture, Alien Invasion, Alternate Universe - No Sburb/Sgrub Sessions, Alternate Universe - Space, Alternate Universe- No First Guardians, Characters as Angels, First Contact, Gen, Language Barrier, Mild Language, Spaceships, cherub
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-13
Updated: 2014-10-17
Packaged: 2018-02-17 07:23:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2301299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JeckParadox/pseuds/JeckParadox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Calliope has predominated, grown her wings, and has recently taken her place as the guardian of her interstellar territory. <br/>One planet in this territory has caught her interest in particular, a little place called Earth. <br/>However, despite only having claimed her territory a short while before, It is already threatened. Another Cherub wants to destroy the stars of her system, while a fleet of invaders aims to destroy her favorite world.</p>
<p>An AU where there is no SBURB, no SGRUB, and all the races inhabit the same universe. <br/>The other big change is that Jack Noir is a Cherub.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Leaving the nest

She sighed a breath of relief. It was done. She knew it. He was no longer there any more.

She glanced at the mirror, and sucked in a breath in surprise. On her cheeks were no longer twin lime spirals, but rather two solid lime circles. 

It had taken years, years of conversations written on wrinkled paper. Years of constantly keeping her stuff hidden, lest face it's destruction or defacement. Years of pranks, jabs, jeers, insults. Years of trying to convince him to cooperate. To see the light, to try and understand what he was doing was wrong. To try and calm him down, pacify him, to make life with him in her head livable. 

It took so long, but she did it. His philosophy slowly changed over the years, and eventually, silently, without so much as a last 'tumut' he died. Her brain filled out the areas that were once his. She had changed too, she knew she had, but not as much, and that was what made the difference. 

She would go to sleep, and when she woke up she'd be in the same place, and nothing out of place. Her wings had sprouted and filled out. Her muscles grew, along with her stomach. Over a few years, the special stardust wasn't enough any more. 

Her eyes turned to the red star her home orbited, and she had her first goal, one that every other member of her race faced before they could truly rise to adulthood. She learned to fly, first learning to glide on the winds of her home-world, then as she grew stronger being able to circle it in seconds. One day, compelled by hunger and an instinctual need to enter the plain of adulthood, she left her world, her jujus, her drawings, her writings, all of it behind. She broke the atmosphere, and connected to the forces that all cherubs thrived on. 

She took her first breath of Space. And, after a flight to the red giant star she had watched her entire life, she had her first _real_ meal. She consumed the fire, the liquid and gaseous metals and chemicals, no longer eating stardust, but star itself. 

She then left it behind. Following trails of stardust to other suns, other worlds. And soon, she marked her territory. She spent her time gliding from solar system to the next. Occasionally one or two of the planets in a system would be inhabited. She would watch them from high above, out of their view. She would protect them silently, deflecting meteors and sunspots from hitting the worlds. As a child, she would have gone down to the world, spoken to the people there, become fascinated with them. But after years and years of Caliborn, the idea of communication left a distaste in her mouth. She had lived this long alone, peaceful. She didn't need to break that solitude yet. 

But soon, she found one world that caught her attention more than any other in her vast realm. It was blue and green, with one white moon. The people on it were interesting, and similar to her. At least in body shape. Well, not green, not armored, not clawed, not winged. But beside that...

Communication still didn't seem like the best idea to her, but the stuff they sent into space... the cities, the people, that she could see from orbit if she tried really hard. She had a good feeling about these people. 


	2. Hello

She dropped down, smiling as the atmosphere enveloped her, it had been so long. Compared to the miniscule, almost non-existent gases of outer space, it was like being submerged in water. It was something she hadn't experienced in years. She slowed herself, and the flames of her entry lessened and dissipated, leaving no scar on her green shell. The fire of a dying sun wasn't enough to hurt her any more. Anything that could burn on the planet Earth wasn't going to bother her. 

She wondered what could, at this point. She dived down, a red glow still surrounded her, and she smiled at the endless blue beneath her. She crashed into it. The water evaporating around her in great bursts of steam, cooling the heat of reentry. 

With a beat of her wings she fired herself from the sea, back into the air. In deep space, the powers of the universe itself, creation and destruction intermingling, gave her wings the ability to beat against nothing and still provide enough push to move infinitely close to the speed of light. But here, with substance all around her, she could rely on her muscles alone. 

She flew across the ocean, and not long after, what was under her wasn't water but land. 

She grinned at the flying animals she shot past in moments, and swooped lower to the ground, dodging between massive steel and glass buildings. She watched the thousands of little aliens looking up an instant after she passed, always just missing her. 

She had looped the world twice, following the magnetic flow of North to South first and then going at another angle, from East to West, before they had really noticed her. 

The machine was surprisingly fast, for creatures with seemingly no psychic powers. Two of them followed her from behind, mimicking her moves and following behind as close as they could. Suddenly overcome with shyness, she shot straight up, out into space. The aircraft followed for a few seconds, before turning back to go to the ground. 

Calliope waited in orbit a few minutes, and not seeing any more craft aiming for her, she lowered herself slowly back down. 

Seeing the creatures up close was interesting, but she still wasn't exactly sure she wanted to talk yet. 

Calliope entered the atmosphere once again, slowly, without fire, and began to lower herself back to where the flying machines had spotted her. It was a large desert area on one of the Northern Continents. She fluttered in place at around the height the planes had first caught up to her, and only had to wait a few minutes before a few dozen or so had appeared. 

Calliope swallowed, she knew that there was nothing they could really do to hurt her. A nuclear fire would do nothing but offer her something to eat. 

She considered flying back up, putting off the conversation a little longer. But she didn't really want to. 

Caliborn was terrible. He had been terrible, the only person she ever talked to. But she knew, somehow, that there were people like her... just like there were people who would be like him. 

She refused to allow Caliborn to ruin any hopes at communication she would have in her life. She had not wished to be alone, for all those years, like he had. She had wanted to cooperate with him. 

So as the machines went around her in wide, careful, non-threatening circles, she lowered herself closer and closer to the ground, finally touching down with her bare feet. The machines had not descended with her, but new machines were arriving closer to the ground or along it. Instead of the arrow-head shaped craft, what looked like tadpoles with propellers circled her, and on the ground they were followed by large boxy wheeled vehicles.

She stood there a few minutes, feeling awkward, as the vehicles began to get situated in a ring around her, the creatures inside staring at her, but not making a move. 

Her second thoughts about communication with other beings were getting stronger. She was considering just flying back up and heading to the next star, leaving this world behind for a few decades, but she reaffirmed that she was not going to let Caliborn ruin any possible future friendships she might have. She would stay, and talk to someone at the very least. At least one conversation. 

One conversation, and if she didn't think it was worth having, she'd find a planet that had someone with something more interesting to talk about. 

After making up her mind, she sat down on the ground, the sudden movement causing the people in the vehicles to twitch as one, there was a short flurry of movement inside the metal boxes, but it quickly cooled. She glanced from one vehicle to the next, waiting for one of them to come out. After another ten minutes, it seemed they were ready to make the first move, a new flying machine showed up, and landed just outside the circle of ground vehicles. Nine of the creatures finally came out, all of them wearing bright white suits that covered their entire bodies, and carrying strange equipment. 

Calliope held herself still as they got closer, the group was hesitant, but they were steadily moving closer. As they cleared the circle of land vehicles, creatures from the other vehicles began exiting, carrying small black machines in their hands- no, those were guns. She could recognize guns. Caliborn had favored a black rifle not dissimilar from the ones now pointed at her. They were bigger than her own wand/magnum, that she had left behind on her world. 

She frowned, narrowing her eyes at them. They _probably_ couldn't do anything to her. She was an adult, she could swim in radiation and eat fire. She could fly away from the gravity well of a black hole, if she tried hard. Probably...

But she didn't really know anything about them. But she had come this far. 

Getting up, she walked slowly toward the white-suited creatures, glancing occasionally at the other creatures with the guns. She tensed slightly as she got within twenty feet of them, the other creatures had, almost as one, raised their weapons, only to hesitantly lower them from some sort of signal from one of the white-suited creatures. She turned her eyes toward it, and sat hesitantly down on the ground again, her legs folded. Her wings were folded as well, close into the grooves of her back, folding over itself multiple times to fit, and creating a type of white, feathery, shell on her back. 

Surprisingly, one of the creatures in white, the one had stopped them from firing, moved forward, past it's colleagues, and walked five feet in front of Calliope, and sat in the same way on the ground. This close, the differences were almost more comical. Even in the suit, they were sticks compared to Calliope's muscles, and at least ten feet shorter. But here they were, sitting close together. Calliope stared at the creature, but the visor over where the face would be hid what the other was thinking. She glanced around at the other vehicles,  and was unsure what to do. It had occurred to her long ago that the races she encountered probably wouldn't know her language, but she had never really had the chance or ability to learn any languages that weren't provided to her by her computer. 

She doubted the creatures knew Cherubim. 

But she might as well try. 

She cleared her throat, and slowly and deliberately held out her hand to the alien, forcing a smile to her face, and said "Hello. M-my name is Calliope. What's yours?"

The alien stared at her hand, and Calliope was aware once again that there were many guns pointed at her. 

The alien then raised it's hand, and Calliope smiled as the tiny, tiny, gloved hand closed around her pinky claw. 

* * *

 

Roxy Lalonde was many things. The proud singly mother of two, one of the richest women in America, a confirmed genius, a doctor, a scientist, a marksman, a recovering alcoholic. She was also, amazingly, wonderfully, the first human in history to shake hands with an alien from another planet. 

The alien in question was a massive one. Green, just like the sci-fi prophets of the fifties had fortold. It's head seemed skull-like, and from the hardness of the grip, like holding the hand of a warm statue, told her it had some kind of exoskeleton. But the most magnificent thing, the thing she had seen on the cameras of two military planes, were the massive, almost glowing white feathered wings. 

The alien lifeform seemed intelligent, and peaceful. So far. 

There were quite a few things she could guess just from looking at it, but that paled in comparison to the number of things she could guess from the way it had acted so far. 

The first sighting, only two hours ago, was of an unidentified small craft moving impossibly fast across the world with no regard for restricted airspace or wind currents. It had circled the Earth twice, and gotten a pretty good estimate of how things worked. If it had been probing the Earth, it had passed through every climate zone and at least passed over a part of every continent. That told her it was intelligent, perhaps looking for something, perhaps trying to catch attention. She didn't know yet, but she had plenty of guesses. 

It was followed by two jets, and shook them off by first testing their maneuverability, and then left orbit. Testing the waters, feeling out the human race's technology. She was inexpressibly relieved when the President himself forbid the jets from firing on it. 

It then returned to the place where the jets first found it, showing a keen sense of navigation and intelligence, as well as a clear desire for contact. The alien clearly recognized the weapons and shifted into a position where it would appear less aggressive. And then, most stunning of all, it showed a human gesture of greeting, and...

well, it said _something_.

This was going better than she had ever dreamed a first contact would go. 

When the alien began subtly pulling it's arm back Roxy let go, and turned slightly, waving to her team. Well, technically, she was part of Johnson's team. But she was the one who acted first, taken initiative, and honestly, she had the best credentials. She slowly, deliberately, now that she noticed the alien staring at her hands in particular, activated the radio in her helmet, so she could communicate with the rest of the team. "I think it's safe to move forward." She said.

"Would the sensors alert it?"

"...I don't believe so, but it has recognized the guns. Be very slow, bring the bigger sensors in first, the sampler, and see how it reacts." Roxy said calmly, and she watched with interest a just a twinge of nervousness as the alien's lime green eyes shifted from her to the people behind her. The alien inched back slightly, looking toward the sampler, and Roxy ordered them all to stop. "...push the sampler forward, by itself, with only one person. Let the alien check it out. Let it see that the guys in white aint carrying guns." 

It was done and one of her teammates slowly pushed the sampler forward, hesitant and mumbling fearfully and excitedly into his radio. The alien glanced around it, at the circle of jeeps and armed soldiers, and slowly, watching the jeeps, got up to it's feet. It was an impressive figure. Slightly more than twenty feet tall, and built like a brick wall. The alien took a slow step around Roxy, and approached the machine. The scientist who had pushed it forward began at that moment to babble with fear, and Roxy ordered him to sit down crosslegged, which he clumsily obeyed. 

The alien took it's time looking at the machine, circling it, picking it up with one hand and setting it back down the moment it sensed the soldiers getting more antsy from the sudden movement. At least the guns were down again. The alien had moved back away from the sampler and set itself down in front of Roxy once more. Turning toward her and opening it's mouth. 

The sounds that came out of it's mouth were... unnusual, silly, almost. 'Honk's, 'hoo's 'hee's 'weigh's 'why's 'wee's 'zill's 'ee's. But it was most likely verbal language, and that was yet another step in the right direction. 

Only a few sounds were the same as last time, one of them seemed to hold the most force for the alien. " _ **CALEEOHPEE**_ ". It said. 

She would have the sound bits analyzed- hell, people were probably analyzing it as she thought.  

The other scientists, seeing the alien had accepted the sampler, began the slow process of setting up a research station without getting too close to the creature. The alien, for its part, was very calm and still, but watched her team work carefully. Roxy herself had gotten up and started her own part, readying her equipment to study the biological component of the alien, as soon as she could. 

After ten minutes, one of her team announced that, while radioactive, it wasn't up to dangerous levels. It was... almost repressed by the alien. She herself had checked that no biological threats were being emitted either. 

She then turned back to the alien, and sat cross-legged in her former position in front of it, and pulled off her helmet. Her albino-white hair fell out in a mess, and she smiled at the alien, who was staring at her in what Roxy could have sworn was surprise. 

Roxy extended her arm first this time, and the alien gently grabbed her hand. 

"Hello, my name is Roxy Lalonde. And welcome to Earth."


	3. Language Lessons

Calliope smiled, allowing herself to be led into a large vehicle by the white-haired creature. She couldn't tear her eyes away from it. It made her almost jealous, all that hair. She wanted to touch it, but she was still very much aware of the creatures with weapons. Two of whom had entered the vehicle behind her. 

Calliope had found herself in a very limiting situation here. While it was incredibly unlikely their weapons could pack anything that could hurt her without destroying their own world, she couldn't really afford to take that chance. If worse came to worse, she could flap straight up, through the ceiling, the atmosphere, and away, probably before any bullet could get a millimeter out of the barrel. Probably. 

The other limiting factor was that the creatures were being very cautious, but at the same time very clearly taking her prisoner. 

They locked the doors on the armored vehicle, bigger than the others, after she and the white-haired friendly creature had entered, well, the white-hair and the gun carrying ones. And with a shake, and an alarmed look from all three of the tiny aliens, watching her to make sure she wasn't spooked, the vehicle started moving across the surface of the world. 

Hours ticked by, but Calliope amused herself by talking with the white-haired one. She would say something, and all three creatures would be surprised, and make a little dance, and the white-haired creature would talk into a little plastic communicator wrapped around its head. 

After a while the creature began talking in earnest to her. She couldn't understand a word it said, but it had a nice voice. The other two, with the guns, would occasionally say something as well, but she preferred the smoother, slurred speech of the white-haired one.

* * *

 As she grew up, Calliope understood the workings of Space. She could tell, somewhere deep inside her mind, that when she stood still in the middle of the desert, she was really spinning, quite fast, around the center of Earth's gravity. And beyond that, moving very quickly a great distance around the Sun's gravity, and beyond that, she was also spinning very quickly around the center of the galaxy, which was spinning around- well, turtles all the way down, she supposed. It was practically impossible to exist and not be spinning around something at the same time. 

But even through all that spinning, she was very good at keeping track of what worlds, what stars, belonged to her. 

She was good at remembering, or rather, sensing, where everything is in relation to everything else. She could tell she was deep underground, many miles from where she had first sat down. 

The creatures had built her a massive enclosure. It was mostly bare, but in the last few days they had begun a slow process of furbishing it. They came in a few times a day, wheeling in the same cart of supplies, and they would try various configurations and different materials, checking her reactions to each one. She found it very flattering. They had 'captured' her, but they were doing their best to make her comfortable. 

The truth was, since her domination, Calliope had needed less and less rest. For beings who consume light and heat and super-dense metals, who harness within their muscles the radiation of dying stars, the very supernatural forces of the universe, the very fabric of creation and destruction, space and time, capable of reaching speeds infinitely close to the speed of light, of near-teleportation, of transformation and explosive destructive force that could rend even the mightiest of horror-terrors that-

Well, the point was that sleep wasn't that much of an issue. 

For a cherub, sleep was something done in childhood to relieve the mental stress of a brain split down the middle and directly opposed. The body never rested for long, the brother would walk the world, and eventually his mind would grow dim to the point where he either gave in and went to sleep of his free will, or collapsed. The body's chemistry would change, the mind and blood of the sister would take precedence, and after a few short hours of transformation, the sister would awake. The body didn't need rest, just the mind.

But the creatures were dead-set on getting her a bed. They brought in chairs that to them must have been massive. They brought in mattresses, boards, masses of dried vegetation. At one point they even brought in a large pool. Eventually, Calliope gave in, when they brought in the base of whatever their newest attempt would be, at this point a mere giant concrete slab, she laid down and shut her eyes, feigning sleep. 

She smiled to herself as the creatures celebrated their victory in getting her to lie down. 

They brought in what Calliope had decided must be toys. Stuffed alien animals, boxes that lit up in strange colors when pressed, spheres that bounced when she threw them. 

And, funniest of all, they brought her food. Varying states of it, arriving every day on a small table. First were various meats, from minced chunks, to steaks, to ground, to, on occasion, live dim-witted quadrupeds. 

She never ate it of course, why would she, when her stomach was still full of stardust? But it still made her happy that the creatures were trying so hard.

The best part of every day was the sessions with the white-haired creature. The Roxy Lalonde. The Roxy would come into her room, and then begin showing Calliope various things. Usually symbols and simple pictures, and Calliope quickly came to the conclusion that the Roxy was trying to teach her the creature's language. Calliope was fascinated by it, and felt that she was doing quite well. She had always been a quick learner, and she had been self-taught in the Cherub language for the sole purpose of writing notes to her brother, as all Cherubs do, so her brain was suited to the task. 

As it was though, progress was not instantaneous, and 90% of the time Calliope had no idea what the Roxy was talking about. 

The Roxy seemed to stammer through things, speaking in her alien language continuously, before getting angry and restating something with a more correct pronunciation. Sometimes it took Roxy three or four attempts to get the words right, but it was good for repetition. Calliope would smile and giggle whenever the alien stammered and got flustered, and the Roxy giggled when she saw Calliope's amusement. At the same time as the aliens trying to teach Calliope English, Calliope took to teaching Cherubim. It was a little more difficult this way around, as the aliens had access to diagrams, drawings, recordings, and moving pictures to assist as learning aids, while Calliope would have to simply scratch the letters into the concrete plaques they brought her. 

 It was fun. More fun than she had ever had in her life. 

* * *

  Roxy Lalonde was making history. 

All of them were, all the scientists here under New Mexico, watching the green alien, but none more so than Roxy Lalonde. She was primarily a biologist, specializing in cloning and artificial breeding, but she had a very good grasp on the entire idea of DNA as a whole. She had grown up a conspiracy theorist, a lover of the supernatural and weird. She had always privately hoped that if something did fall from the sky and change everything, it would be more in the lines of fantasy than science fiction, but she would take what she would get. 

Years before the alien, or Calliope, as the linguists had decided it identified itself as, had shown up she joined groups that would research alien lifeforms, should they ever appear. Scientists had been making groups like that for decades, just in case. A list of names to call should the impossible ever really happen. It even managed to get federally acknowledged, as a security measure that was at the priority of "Well, it couldn't hurt." She knew the way chemicals formed life better than most, and it was agreed upon, that in an emergency she could act as a Xenobiologist in the name of the Earth, or more particularly, the United States of America. 

Unfortunately, it seemed she would not be remembered for all of time for her breakthroughs in genetics, but rather, for teaching an angelic alien hulk how to read. Well, you couldn't be picky when it came to being a future historical figure. Abraham Lincoln would never be famous for his self-insert mystery novels after all. 

Her chosen field wasn't of that much use at the moment, seeing as Calliope did not breathe out alien microbes, or leave biological waste, or flaky skin, or even spit. There wasn't really much work for a biologist. As a trusted ambassador to an alien species though, there never seemed to be enough. Teaching Calliope English or learning its language seemed to be priority uno, in regards to her work. The two or three linguists who had been called originally after the second sighting had been coaching her extensively, and with permission from the Gov, contacted a few more of their friends in the language field to help decode the alien language. 

It was slow-going of course. The linguists compared hundreds of clips of Calliope speaking, either without interruption, or giving Roxy the chance to repeat it. But they've managed to identify at least a few of the silly-sounding words. Or a close approximation of it. Roxy knew the word for _bed_ , or alternatively  _slab of concrete_. They identified _Calliope_ as the alien's name, or at least identification, and have also learned the name of the language itself;  _Chair-bim_. Calliope had also written down a great deal on stone plaques given to her for the sole purpose of recording as much of the language permanently.

Calliope had progressed much faster. Calling Roxy by her name, learning the words bed, ball, toy, animal, and meat. Calliope could also recite the alphabet verbally, but didn't seem to fully connect what she was saying to the letters on the cards. 

* * *

 Roxy was beginning to get homesick. While the project had been exhilarating at first, it was such a monumental discovery, and teaching and speaking with Calliope was fun, almost like teaching Dave and Rose as toddlers; complete with children's books and playing with stuffed animals, but she had been in the facility for almost two weeks now. She had left her twins with her brother, who had promised to look after them for as long as it took. After all, they weren't kids any more, and both of them had been pretty self-contained anyway.

They just legally needed some supervision while their Mom was at some boring science conference with a bunch of nerds halfway around the world in some shitty hotel. 

-as her brother would say. 

She trusted Dirk of course, he'd never intentionally get them hurt. He'd see they got to school on time, he would be there to drive them if they needed to go somewhere. He would be there to pay for the pizza and to help with the homework. Not that they would need help with any of those things. The main problem with Dirk was when the twins were little, and Dirk enjoyed psyching them out for the fun of it, delving so deep into irony that neither had any clue of their uncle's true personality. This problem should be rectified now, Dirk had been forcefully sworn off of breaking his niece and nephew's minds after one smuppet trap too many, and that had been that. 

That didn't really help calm her nerves however, and she had been getting more distracted by the day. She had begun introducing other scientists, these times professional linguists, and had slowly been turning over the language lessons to them. She had applied for a short leave to check on her kids a few days ago, but there had still been no word on the approval of it, and she wasn't sure under how much security she would be. She understood completely the significance of Calliope, and the importance of keeping it a secret from the rest of the world, but she did not want to bring armed watchful security guards going through her house. Dave was already too much of a conspiracy theorist, and Rose's curiosity to the activities of her mother ranged from apathetic to dangerously insightful seemingly at random. 

It wasn't a secret she was a biologist, and a rich, famous one, of course. But both of them had managed to get it into their heads that she was doing something conspiracy-worthy since they were six, and she really didn't want to prove them right just quite yet. 

"Doctor Lalonde?" She looked up from her paperwork at the two men. 

"Yes?"

"We've approved your request for a three-day leave." 

"Three days? My house is in New York! The rides there and back alone-"

"We're also considering options about their relocation to the base here." 

"What." Roxy frowned. "No, that's not going to be an option here."

"We are unsure for how long the project will continue, and your services will be required for however long it runs." One of them said. 

"Your talents and experience with the alien make you one of the most valuable scientists at the base, and you know the most about the alien. It's a security issue on a national level that we keep you safe. If you were to regularly leave the base to make contact with your family, it would make you a perfect target any one of our enemies. Eventually, the alien will become known to our competitors. And when that happens, they're going to try and get information any way they can. You've had the most experience with the alien, making you a major target for kidnapping and interrogation. Either the leaves will be as short and secure as physically possible, or we'll bring your family here." Said the other, trying to look sympathetic. 

"What about their schooling? I can't just ask them to be ready to move out of the blue! I haven't told- would I even be allowed to tell them?"

"They're just children." The first agent said. "But even so, you'll only be able to tell them if they're on the base as well."

"As for their schooling, there are other dependents living at the base. We do have a school here."

"But Rose has private tutors and-" Roxy began.

"Miss Lalonde-"

" **Doctor** Lalonde." The other agent corrected, before Roxy could herself.  "We have all the facilities necessary. If we have to we can hire the required tutors, or simply reimburse you for the educational loss after the project is complete."

"I..." Roxy pinched her nose, her eyebrows arching in concentration. "...I don't know. I have to talk to them about it. I'll take the leave now and we'll discuss them coming or not to the base later."

"Of course." 

* * *

Calliope noticed that Roxy had been attending the lessons less and less nowadays. But this was the first day where Roxy hadn't appeared at all. She enjoyed the lessons with the other creatures, Human, as they both referred themselves as, too, but not as much as those she had with Roxy. There was less fun to it. 

She did have to admit these ones were slightly more efficient at actually teaching the language, and, though she couldn't really tell, they seemed to be quicker at understanding Cherubim. They were a lot more enthusiastic about it as well. Repeating every word she was saying and replicating the letters and sentences she wrote over and over. But they didn't seem to have the same genuine feeling in the other things. Roxy had taken to draping a cloth over Calliope when she pretended to sleep for the creatures, and while these ones replicated the act, and the words Roxy said when she did it, there wasn't any genuine feeling behind it. Not like when they were learning the language. 

But Calliope couldn't complain. They were keeping her entertained. They were trying so hard, and they were so small, and they were all so nice.

She wished she had spent her childhood with any one of them instead of her brother. 

Cherubs were creatures that lived alone. When mating may prove fatal, and your territory is wider than an astronomical unit, you didn't come across other living things very often, and you didn't want to. 

To meet another of your own species was asking for a war, among Cherubs. There was a language, there was support in the form of food and entertainment left behind, but beyond that, there would be no kindness. If Calliope ever encountered her father, one of them would die. And if she ever encountered her mother, both would back away, slowly, untrustful. That was the lesson taught by the Cherub's physiology to themselves. To never trust another. To train you to fear contact. Or at the very least despise it. The letters written on the walls, the wrecked toys, the scribbled-in journals. 

That was what other people meant. There would never be a great Cherub civilization, because they would never be able to stand each other. And it was a good thing too, for the universe at large. One Cherub can bring devastation upon an entire Galaxy. What might ten thousand do?

But that was cruel of nature to do. Calliope found she enjoyed conversing with other creatures. Caliborn's influence, nay, the plotting of nature against herself, would not stop her from making friends. 

The proof of that friendship was that she missed Roxy already. Calliope opened her eyes, ceasing to pretend being asleep, and sensed motion on the other side of the walls. She had spooked those watching her. 

She got up, and focused. She had left markers on pieces of matter all over her territory, constantly broadcasting to all other Cherubs that came close enough that everything between belonged the beacons belonged to her. She had left a similar beacon on Roxy, subconsciously, and followed it. Such a small distance away, in the scheme of things, merely on the other side of the continent. She could get there in less than a second, if she didn't mind detonating all the matter between the two points. 

She decided against it. If Roxy was coming back, then she wouldn't want to come back to a crater. And if she wasn't... well, there were other aliens here, and she could just see her again some other time. She watched the psychic image that signified where Roxy Lalonde was move back and forth across a small space, before making a longer trip, and moving high into the sky and very quickly. Probably in one of the flying craft. The two others, Human and Human, had entered again and indicated they wanted to start the lessons, but Calliope wanted to continue watching. Roxy was getting closer, very slowly, but still getting closer. She smiled that Roxy was coming back, and giggled when it seemed the vehicle had overshot the base, landing a distance away and having to turn back and move along the land to reach it. 

Calliope followed the action with her eyes, focusing on the point that represented Roxy for the creature's entire journey back from the other side of the continent, turning her head and body when she had to. 

Human and Human were trying to get her attention for the better part of four hours now, and now that Roxy was safely within Roxy's usual sphere of movement, Calliope could relax and focus on the lessons. Both of the aliens seemed angry that she had ignored them, but they got down to business right away with English speaking. 

It was another three hours of teaching before the tiny alien-sized door unlocked and Roxy came through, smiling and waving at Calliope. She had a short conversation with Human and Human, and sat down on Calliope's slab, watching her and the two Humans go through the language exercises. They were over soon enough, and Roxy babbled at Calliope in the alien language, looking happier than she had in the past few days. 

"So, what were you doing all the way over there?" Calliope asked in Cherub, humoring Roxy, and smiling as Roxy's face went into deep concentration trying to understand what Calliope had just said. "I hope you'll be able to tell me soon."


	4. Moving Day

Two weeks ago, she had received a call from an old friend from college, a friend who, like she, had both offered their services in the improbable case that alien lifeforms descended upon the Earth.

She never really expected it to actually happen. A bunch of world-class scientists of various trades get together for a big dinner, have a few too many beers, and begin discussing the wonders of the universe, contemplating things that will not receive funding, but must be contemplated nonetheless. They discuss alien lifeforms, and someone has the great, not quite sober idea of collecting a list of names of people who would be willing to deal with aliens on behalf of the people of Earth. Just in case. 

Roxy signed on. 

A year and a half later she found out she was pregnant with twins. 

Thirteen years after that, in a massive home with its own lab, with two kids in their last days of middle school, and a much bigger kid who also happened to be her brother, her name came up. Her phone number fished out. And, then things went quick. She rushed to Dirk, telling him something major came up, and making him promise to watch the kids. 

"How long are you going to be away?"

"I don't know!" 

"Like what, three days, a weekend, a week?"

"I don't know!"

"Like a month?"

"Maybe!" Roxy panicked. 

She explained to the kids that there was a huge breakthrough she had to oversee personally, being as vague as possible, and that Dirk was in charge. 

It wasn't the first time she was unexpectedly called away for one project or another. They were used to the schedule, with a semi-ironic demand from Dave that she bring him back souvenirs, she was led away by three government agents, and rushed onto a private plane. It went nonstop to New Mexico, not to Roswell, unfortunately, but close enough, and she was there, right there, when Calliope came down. 

She joined the team that would be the first to make contact. And when the meeting seemed to be reaching an impasse, she took a chance, walked forward, and introduced herself. 

Now she was being sent back to New York, to have a very important and possibly life-changing very short conversation with her three dependents. She was shuttled from the private plane to a tinted black windowed jeep, and soon they were speeding down the roadways to her, well, mansion, in the more empty part of continental New York.  

She didn't have the chance to call ahead, but she supposed it wouldn't have made much of a difference, this wasn't something you could just explain over the phone. She walked up to the front step, two burly agents following her every step and suspiciously watching the surrounding woods for signs of would-be kidnappers or assassins. "Hey kids!" Roxy called, ringing the front doorbell. It took a moment, and Dirk opened the door, his masked expression of boredom not changing in the slightest at the sight of her, or the two strangers. "Hey Dirk. How've the kids been?"

"Oh you know, good. There were like, two fires tops."

Roxy smiled. "A new record then."

"So, who're your friends here, and are you willing to share?" Dirk asked, a small grin breaking the mask for a moment. 

"I'd like you to meet agents generic and whatever, they're not important... we need to have a family meeting."

"What, right now? You've barely walked through the door."

"That's because you're standing in front of it."

"That is true." He made an ironic bow, moving to the side for Roxy and the men to pass. "I'll get the kids in the living room."

Roxy nodded, suddenly becoming filled with emotion all over again. How could she force them to move? They were living in a mansion, where it's cold, and surrounded by woods and with zero neighbors, and she would be forcing them to share a little house on a base near the desert filled with soldiers and scientists. It wouldn't be fair. 

She turned to the two agents once Dirk got out of earshot, and frowned. "So, how much am I allowed to tell them?"

"Nothing classified."

"I can't just ask them to come live on a military base in New Mexico without explaining why!"

"We're _what?_ " Dave asked, sliding silently into the entryway. 

"Um." Roxy began, her eyes widening as Rose and Dirk followed close behind. 

"Well, I certainly believe that does require an explanation. Why New Mexico?" Rose asked, her eyes alighting on each agent and back to her mother. 

Roxy looked pleadingly at the two men. "Come on! I can't just not explain anything!"

They didn't answer. Roxy huffed, narrowing her eyes. "So what happens if I _do_ tell them? They're all minors."

"Nothing would happen to them, but you, Doctor Lalonde could be tried with treason."

Her eyes narrowed further as Dirk swore under his breath. 

"Is it aliens?" Dave asked, and the two agents broke their cool for second, staring at him and back to Roxy before gathering their wits and becoming entirely neutral once more. "I... think that's a yes. Holy crap."

"What, really?" Rose was less trusting of something that outlandish. 

"What else would the government have to keep classified about a geneticist in New Mexico?" Dave justified. "Besides, I didn't think it honestly, I thought I was being clever. But... holy crap."

"Well they already know now." Roxy said, trying not to grimace. "And no one told them..."

The two agents looked at each other, and one muttered "excuse us for a second," before they both left the room to talk in hushed tones. 

"But... seriously, aliens?" Dave asked, wide-eyes behind his sunglasses. "That's... well, that's worse than what we've thought up."

Rose narrowed here eyes. "You can't really expect us to believe that, right, the sudden existence of aliens?"

Dirk frowned, "Is it actually aliens Roxy?"

Roxy sighed. This wasn't how she planned the explanation. "Yeah, kind of its... yes, it's an alien. They found a real-life alien, and I've been working with it, but I don't really think I'm allowed to say anything else." She pinched the bridge of her nose, before looking each of her dependents in the eyes. "But the job's really complicated, and it might last months... maybe even more than a few years." She swallowed, looking around the house, at the countless photographs and marionettes and comics and knitted paraphernalia that decorated the walls and shelves. "So, either the options are that you live her with Dirk, and I'll visit as often as possible... or you all come and live with me on the base. There's a bunch of other kids there, and a little town that's not too much farther than what we already deal with... it's just... really sudden and short notice, and I'm sorry."

Dave and Rose shared a look, before asking "how long until we have to leave?"

Roxy gestured to the two agents. " _I_ have to leave before tomorrow morning, but... well, if you three decide to come and live at the base, you'll have a few more days to pack and the government people will arrange everything for you guys to move in. If not, then well... I'll try and talk to you as often as possible, maybe try and get a daily chat thing going. I'll try to get it approved and then we can still talk online like we usually do when I have to go somewhere... just it'll be a lot longer and-"

"Mom. Mom, not in front of the guests." Rose chided gently, and Roxy realized she was crying. 

"Sorry it's just that... I can't just ask you all to leave! This is more your home than mine."

"Don't worry about it, we'll come to the base." Dirk affirmed, pulling Rose and Dave closer, a show of how united they were, and an attempt to knock the Ben Stiller glasses from his face. "it's about time we took ourselves a vacation, isn't it?"

Dave managed to untangle himself from his uncle and sister, and gestured up the stairs. "So, can we leave with you if we get packed right now?"

Roxy laughed a little and dragged Dave into another ambush hug. "Sorry kid, but not right now. I'll help you get started though... are all three of you really sure about this? It's not going to be anything like home... and all your friends at school... It might be months before we can come back."

"Mom, you can't really expect us to stay home while you're... well, are you really working with aliens?" Rose asked, still skeptical.

"Yep." That seemed to be enough, for now, until she could see it for herself.

"Then that's really important. Incredibly, incredibly important. How could we not want to be involved?"

Dirk nodded. "This is on a whole other scale, this is like some serious, world-changing sci-fi shit. Why the heck would we want to be anywhere else, when what literally might be the most unusual thing to happen in our lives is just on the other side of the country?"

The two agents returned to the room, looking grim. "I'm afraid we'll have to hurry this up actually." One of them said. "All four of you will be leaving today, now."

"What? Why?"

"You've basically already told them of the existence of an alien in New Mexico, if that classified information leaks out in the time it'll take to move you-"

"Dude, everyone already knows aliens landed in Roswell." Dirk affirmed. "Literally everyone."

"It's not Roswell." Roxy said. 

"Well yeah, but what I'm saying is, even if we started a new trend of telling everyone vague hints about aliens in New Mexico, they'll just think it's part of the conspiracy already going on."

"Even so, we have our orders." The other agent began the process of closing the blinds on every window he saw. "Go up, everyone can bring two, maybe three travel bags. No liquids. If there's anything you need that's been left behind, we can send someone to get them later. There is to be no contact with anyone outside of this house."

The four of them stood in relative shock, before breaking out of it and rushing to get the travel gear or rushing to their bedrooms when the agent tapped his watch. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not too confident in my characterization for the Stri-londe family. It's been a while since I've read the comic, but I don't really feel like going through tons and tons of dialogue to try and get at the substance of their true characters. Rose seems a little too cooperative, Dave a little too kiddy, Dirk a little too tame. I don't know. Any OOC is due to my bad memory, and writing ability, but since this is an AU, I'm going to say that living all together, instead of apart, and alone, mellowed them all out a little. I don't know.


	5. President Egbert

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, in this AU the character alterations from canon are as follows: Jack Noir is a Cherub, Dirk is Roxy's younger brother, and Dad Egbert is the President of the United States. More to come?

"So when do we get to see it?" Dave asked casually. 

"You don't." The agent answered gruffly. Offended he had been put on babysitting duty. "You're not even supposed to know about it."

Rose looked up from her corner of the room where she was reading _the Prisoner of Azkaban_ for the ninth time. "Can't we even get a hint? Telling us upfront is probably the best way to stop us from unneeded curiosity. We'll find out one way or another, so telling us is the least damaging method."

"No, what'll stop you from unneeded curiosity, is knowing that if you two do decide to go sneaking around, you could get shot or get your mom in serious trouble." The guard replied. 

"How serious are we talking about here?" Dave asked, raising an eyebrow. 

"Traitor-of-the-state serious."

"Because her kids were too curious?" Rose asked incredulously. 

The agent sighed, pinching the ridge of his nose. "I don't know. It's above my pay grade. I'm not allowed to talk about it at all. And neither are you."

Rose rolled her eyes. "As I've already stated, if an alien _is_ here, we've already been told, and we're obviously going to continue looking into it. The safest option is to let us know more about the situation, give us a clear, direct, idea of the consequences of our actions. As you would do if we were adults."

"If you were adults, you'd either be dead, or in government custody."

"...Aren't we already in government custody?"

Dave tapped his fingers rhythmically on the chair, glancing occasionally at Rose and the bodyguard. Dirk was in another building off to the side, presumably being interrogated until they decided he didn't know anything too classified and the three of them would live at one of the houses on the base.

Rose and the bodyguard continued their passive-aggressive back and forth, and he stared at his watch. The first thing they confiscated were their phones and computers. Even Rose's DS. It had been very clear there would be no contact with the outside world for quite some time. It seemed like it stretched on for hours, but really they had only been waiting for one before they released Dirk, with an apologetic Roxy following close behind. 

Rose and Dave got up to give their customary hugs to Roxy and awkward hair-rufflings by Dirk before being led to their new temporary dwelling place. 

"So, what can you tell us about the alien, Mom?" Rose asked innocently, not giving any sign of noticing the bodyguard's glare. 

"Not much right now sweetie." Roxy said, giving an apologetic smile. "But I'll talk it over with the guys in charge, and hopefully I can talk to you guys all about it! It's so exciting!" She leaned in conspiratorially, and stage-whispered "I'm actually working on arranging a meeting! Calliope would be delighted to meet you!"

Dave's eyes widened slightly. "Wait... so we'd actually get to talk to it?"

"Out of the question." The guard said gruffly, but went ignored. 

"Hopefully! We'll have to wait and find out." Roxy said, grinning. 

* * *

 

Calliope watched Roxy as she talked at length about whatever was making her happy. She understood bits and pieces of it, and Roxy used the few Cherubim words that she knew at certain times, as if to clarify, but in all honesty it made the explanation even more confusing. 

Calliope bent in closer when Roxy unbuttoned her white coat, something Roxy had never done before, and pulled out a few photographs. She leaned in and took the pictures gently from Roxy's hand to get a better look at them. While a few of them had Roxy, at younger ages, the Cherub could tell, the other photos contained images of other humans. Roxy pointed at one, a Human with short white hair and large black eye-coverings, and said happily "Dave." Then "my little boy!"

"Dave, my adorable little boy." Calliope repeated with a little effort. 

Roxy giggled, then shook her head. "Not _your_ little boy. **My** little boy."

"My little boy." Calliope affirmed, before smiling in a slightly amused and confused way when Roxy continued to laugh, before shaking her head.

Roxy brought out the paper and pencils, quickly sketching Calliope's slab, and a smaller bed. A similar model had been brought in and rejected a few weeks ago. Roxy paused for a second, then pointed to the slab. "Your bed." She moved her finger to the other. "My bed." She repeated the excercise twice, before narrowing her eyes at the drawing, and adding a simple self-portrait on the bed, and drawing a simple picture of Calliope over the slab. "My bed, your bed."

Calliope smiled as understanding dawned on her. She pointed at the slab and said, in almost perfect english. "Your bed." Which obviously meant 'my bed' in Human. 

Roxy broke down giggling again, and began to work on the pictures once more. 

* * *

 

"Mr. President." The guard said, nodding and glancing behind him as he turned to lead the leader of the free world to the greatest discovery since the moon landing. 

"This is where the alien is?" The president's son asked excitedly, turning around as they walked toward the center of the base. 

"Yes son." The president said, ruffling his son's hair and turning him frontward. "It should be an interesting experience."

"Are we the first people to meet it?" the boy asked.

"No, we've been working on communications with it since it's appearance about a month ago." The guard replied, nervously. "Mr. President, are you sure it's really wise to bring John with you on such a... historic occasion?"

"Of course! How could I possibly explain to John that I left him behind when I was about to meet with an alien lifeform?"

"In my opinion sir, I simply wouldn't have."

John made a pfft noise, grinning. "Dad can't keep anything from me if I try."

The president slipped into a knowing grin. "And, who, exactly, was it who gave himself hiccups from the shock of seeing their father's name on the news as a candidate for the mayor of Maple Valley six years ago?"

John sighed, covering his face with both hands as he sarcastically lamented "You become shocked at finding out your entire perception of your Dad was a carefully-constructed lie once as a seven-year-old, and they'll never let you forget it."

He began leading them down the hall to a large display area, where an array of scientists in white coats and what John could only assume to be just as many of the Men in Black, or possibly more of his Dad's secret service agents. From there, John's eyes naturally turned toward the massive Plexiglas window, not unlike something from the zoo, and the hundreds of television and compute screens next to it, displaying-

"Oh my fu-."

"John." His dad said warningly.

"-God. Was going to say God. Oh my God." John babbled slightly, making his way carefully up to the computer screen showing the massive, green, muscled, shiny, glowing alien playing some kind of game with a woman in a lab coat. "Oh my God it's real!"

His dad came closer, watching the camera views with an awed expression, letting his mouth hang open slightly before he noticed the woman behind the glass. "Excuse me, sir, but the woman in there with the alien-"

"Ah yes, I've been meaning to talk to you about that Mr. President, you see, Doctor Lalonde was the first person to make contact, as well as communication, and has been leading the socialization and education projects. We were hoping that you might officially appoint Doctor Lalonde as an Ambassador of the U.S. to Calliope's race."

"Uh..." He stared, starstruck, through the screen before seeming to remember where he was, giving a short nod to one of the directors. "I think that's a fine idea. I'll begin work on that as soon as we've finished with the meeting... I assume that the declaration of her official status will have to remain private until further notice?"

"Of course, sir."

"Dad, are we actually going to be able to go down there and shake his hand?" John asked excitedly. "Just imagine how Dave and Rose-" His dad put a hand on John's shoulder and John bit his lip, "Oh... yeah. Don't worry, I know the deal."

His Dad gave a proud nod and turned to the director. "Don't worry about a thing Director, John can be exceptionally tight-lipped when he wants to be. There won't be any security breaches coming from my son, at the very least."

"Of course, mister President."

"So, that does bring up an important point though, when will our historic meeting actually be taking place? Does... Calliope, you said? Does he require some time to prepare a statement, or-"

"Unfortunately Calliope is still at the early stages of comprehension of English. We've been making astonishingly good time, but she still hasn't mastered enough for even a basic conversation. At this point of time we simply want to familiarize her with you, so that she'll react favorably to you in future meetings where she'll be better able to communicate."

"I see."

"However, if you want we could begin right away. You don't even have to change, as long as you're careful not to leave anything in the containment area."

"Ah! Well then, come on John. Let's hurry!" The president said excitedly, grabbing his son and gesturing for the director to lead the way. 

"Yes!"

* * *

 

"Doctor Lalonde?"

Roxy stopped her explanation to Calliope suddenly as the communicator in her ear crackled to life. She gave an apologetic grin to Calliope, who merely stared, amused, at the area around Roxy's ear. The scientists were still unsure whether it was Calliope's recognition of the communicator as a, well, communicator, or if Calliope was reacting to the radio waves. 

"Yes?"

"The President of the United States and his, uh, his son, arrived about twelve minutes ago, and are coming down to greet Calliope, and begin the familiarization process."

"Oh! Right now?"

"Is that all right? Is Calliope agitated in any way?"

Roxy turned toward her large green friend, who was still smiling, a little amused, as she delicately paged through _Good Night Moon_. "She seems to be in a very good mood today." Roxy said, almost proudly. "But it's on record she's agitated by the presence of firearms, especially concealed ones, she can sense them."

"Duly noted, unfortunately, at least three secret service members at a time must be present with the President at all times."

"Understood. Alright, send them down."

She turned to Calliope and clicked off the earpiece. "Well Calliope, you have an important guest today! The president! I've been wanting to meet him for years! Yer' lucky, you know that, Callie?"

Calliope's face brightened noticeably at the word 'guest', and she repeated the word happily. 

Roxy turned around, slightly flustered, and patted down her lab coat, standing next to Calliope, her hand open in case Calliope decided to hold it. Calliope's face lost some of the brightness as the first Secret Service Agent entered, her eyes immediately locking on the concealed guns, and her eyes flickered to Roxy's with a little nervousness. 

"It's alright, Callie. It's okay, they're not going to do anything." Roxy said quickly, sure of herself, in a tone that Calliope recognized as confident. Another agent came in, then the President, and then-

"Oh my God!" the president's son almost whispered and shouted at the same time. Calliope's eyes widened slightly at the boy's sudden appearance and proclamation, and pointed at the president, and then to John. " _ **YOUR** **BOY**_?"

The President blinked in surprise, before smiling and nodding proudly. "Yes indeed, his name is John." He walked forward, a little nervously, and extended his arm upward. "Hello, Calliope. My name is Sassacre Egbert II. And as the President of the United States of America, I'd like to formally offer my friendship, and welcome you to stay for as long as you so wish."

 Calliope blinked, before shaking the outstretched hand. Her eyes quickly shifted to the Secret Service Agents as their hands tensed over their concealed weapons. Roxy followed Calliope's gaze and frowned. "I should probably tell you three that Callie here probably wouldn't be hurt in the slightest by those things, and if you keep hovering over them it'll just make her angry."

The president raised an eyebrow and turned to his bodyguards. "Yes, please calm down, firing in this situation is probably more dangerous for the country than me getting eaten or something."

John, not really caring about the secret service agents after so long, walked forward and looked at Roxy hesitantly. "Uh... can I touch hi- her?"

Roxy smiled a little at John, before making eye contact with Calliope and guiding the hand Roxy was holding to John's. "Calliope, this is John Egbert, the son of the President." She turned to John. "John, this is Calliope. And yes, she really is an alien."

"Uh... Hi."

" _ **Hello**_."

John grins a little, putting both hands around Calliope's. "Wow... heh... I never thought I'd actually get to hold an alien's hand! As soon as we can talk about it Dave and Rose and Jade will be so jealous." He says to his dad.

Roxy's eyes widen. "Did you say... Dave and Rose?"

"...Uh... yeah, don't worry! I already got the whole spiel about everything being classified for now, they're my online friends, but I'm totally capable of keeping this a secret for as long as I need to!"

Roxy's eyes narrowed. "...you wouldn't happen to have the handle "ghostyTrickster" would you?"

John's eyes widened. "Um."

"I have two kids named Dave and Rose, and they talk a lot about their online friend "GT", well, not often, but often enough. Huh, small world? They're on the base right now actually."

"Wonderful! We could set up a playdate." The president of the united states said to the world's leading biologists in front of a massive angelic alien. "John's said he wanted to meet with them face-to-face quite a few times!" 

John blanched slightly. "They're... here, right now?" His grin grew twice as wide, revealing the teeth no braces in the world could hope to tame. "Meeting an alien for the first time, and Rose and Dave!" John turned up to Calliope, who was simply smiling without really understanding at the little human's antics. "This could quite possibly be the best day of my life."

Roxy smiled slightly, before sitting down in one of the chairs, gesturing for the President and John to sit in two others. Calliope, used to the routine of 'familiarizing' with new researchers, sat down on her slab of concrete. "So, Mister President, what do you already know about out guest on this world?"

The President gave a somewhat wry smile, "Well, I'd just like to start with that I'm honored to meet you Doctor Lalonde, I'm a bit of an admirer of your work. You worked with my uncle, Doctor Harley, correct?"

"Oh, believe me, the honor is all mine." Roxy said, blushing slightly. "And yes, I do remember Jake, such a sweetheart, that old man." She grabbed a clipboard from the ground next to her chair, "But we really should get started. What have you been told about Calliope so far?"

"So far?" The president reclined back slightly, reaching habitually for a pipe he hadn't carried with him since the start of his presidential campaign. "The majority is the initial first contact reports- of an unidentified super-sonic flight craft circling the world twice over, violating our airspace three times, as well as the touchdown and your team's first face-to-face meeting with Calliope. Since then, however, not much information has come in, aside from a daily report of the day's activities without explaining much of the results."

"I see. Well, once we brought her into the containment area we've been working as hard as possible to learn either her language, or successfully teach her one of ours."

"Is she telepathic?" John asked. 

"Huh? Um... not that we can tell, at least. No one's reported any kind of mental irregularities not commonly associated with overworking, inspiration, shock, awe, or despair."

"...Despair?" His father asked, raising an eyebrow. 

"Well, finding out we're not alone in the universe, some people are overjoyed and overcome with a sense of awe for the universe, some people just look at it as an unusually improbably scientific fact, some people freaked right the eff out." Roxy gave a half-hearted chuckle. "Actually, I think a committee started to officially investigate all plausible past UFO claims, now that they seem a lot more plausible than they did last year."

 "I see."

John stared at Calliope in wonder, moving in his seat slightly to look at her from different angles. "What does she eat?"

"So far? Nothing we've fed her."

The president looked a little alarmed at that. "Nothing? You mean she's had nothing to eat in the entirety of her stay here?"

"We brought out everything we could think of." Roxy said, frowning. "The most interest she had in any of them was literal raw meat and, of all things, Lucky Charms." She shrugged. "And even then she only tried a little and ignored the rest. Our working plan is that should she begin gnawing on anything, we'll release her and follow at a distance, see if she finds something for herself. Then again it's totally possible she's fueled by radiation, or has a very efficient metabolism, enough that she might not have to eat for decades at a time. She's a creature that can fly through space of her own power, unprotected and unaided. I mean, it's not like there'd be enough calories to do that in a steak, or even a million."

"hm..." The president furrowed his brow as he considered Calliope. "...What's her official status. As a person, I mean."

"I wouldn't know. The people in the lab call her anything from 'the alien', 'the subject', to 'the big green man from mars'. She's been staying here more or less voluntarily, but I don't think the people here are exactly planning to let her go free should she choose she wanted to leave."

"hmm..." He looked at his son, who couldn't take his eyes off of Calliope, reaching up and trying to brush his hand against one of Calliope's feathered tendrils. Originally they had thought the tendrils were merely part of the wing, two thin, useless white-feathered tails sprouting from her back under the base of each wing, but after further testing and seeing Calliope manipulate objects heavier than a truck with them (namely, her slab), they concluded they were powerful tentacles. As John's finger brushed against it, it wrapped around John's hand and lifted him up out of his seat slightly, causing the president to hitch his breath. 

Roxy's eyes darted to the guards, before standing up and guiding the tendril, and the boy it was holding, back into the seat. "Callie, I wouldn't recommend being playful while there are the gun guys around." Roxy whispered, knowing Calliope would hear. The alien nodded slightly, understanding the meaning from sensing the Secret Service members reaching instinctively for their weapons once more.  

"So, I suppose we'll have to work out the plan later, depending on Calliope's input in the future, once we better understand each other." The President concluded. "I suppose the next step is this 'familiarization' process?"

Roxy smiled. "We try to get each new researcher and Calliope used to each other. Y'see, she's pretty mellow and cheerful, but when people look at her, they just see some huge, beautiful monster. Like a tiger or something, they're intimidated, once the wonder of the situation wears off. So we try to socialize them with her for a bit. Let the new researchers actually interact with Calliope, get a feel for how gentle she actually is, get a feel for her personality."

"How would you normally go about doing this?"

Roxy smiled, picking up one of the many children's books lying around the floor. "Usually the first session is spent just reading with her."

The president picked up one of the books and cracked a smile. "Alright then."


End file.
